AskMetafilter recently had the following question posed which led to some great discussion.
Did libraries (public and university) stop requiring people to be quiet in the last few years, or is it just me?
At home on a recent break, I tried studying in a number of public
libraries and found that most were noisier than the local Starbucks. It
wasn't just the young people and cellphone talkers you might expect;
the worst offenders were senior citizens and a few librarians
themselves (one of whom read off the names of all the presidents over
the phone in a normal-to-loud voice.) Whispering seemed completely out
of place, the relic of a bygone era. The same is true of my university
library. I know there are a lot of librarians here; has there been a
major policy shift in libraries over the last few years, or have they
just given up? (Or am I imagining it?)
Comments 6
Ironically, today's Globe and Mail covers the changes of the Public Library in light of the digital age: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070110.gtlibraries10/BNStory/PersonalTech/home
It's something I didn't clue into in library school, but after I finished the MLIS program and started applying for jobs I did a lot of research on the Library 2.0 phenomenon. Part of the Library 2.0 concept is to make libraries more “user friendly”, including removing “archaic” library rules such as “no talking” and “no cell phones”. Public libraries are jumping on the Library 2.0 bandwagon more so than are academic libraries, but it is true that my newfound knowledge of Library 2.0 helped me land my academic library job.
Thanks for the tip. Good article – very positive.
Because of the tech connotations, I think a lot of people think “Library 2.0” is some sort of reference to improving technology in libraries. That's part of it but that's definitely not all of it as you so rightly point out.
Here's Sarah Houghton's definition, from Library Stuff (http://www.librarystuff.net/2006/01/library-20-questions-and-commentary.html):
”
“Library 2.0 simply means making your library's space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.””
“has there been a major policy shift in libraries over the last few years, or have they just given up?”
A bit of column A and a bit of Column B. I think that Librarians, in general, would love to be able to provide patrons with both a vibrant bazaar of information and a sacred temple of knowledge. But you can't do both in the same space and the locus of our culture has moved from the temple to the bazaar.
I tend to consider it a form of tyranny of the majority, but probably only because the bazaar isn't yet bustling enough to make it more aluring than the temples of my youth. Most libraries I've visited recently have done both poorly, but are generally improving in the former at the expense of the latter.
Cheers
I've talked about it before but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of formally dividing libraries into two sections – one traditional, quiet, old-fashioned library and one modern, loud, techno-library. I keep telling people this is what they're doing in France but have never re-discovered the article where I first read about this and am beginning to worry that I dreamed it.